Non Toxic Food Preparation (part one)

Welcome!
I'm Donielle and this is my blog, full of information on fertility, food, and natural living. I have a team of amazing and knowledgeable contributors helping me get out relevant content each month and all of them have their own fertility story.
I'm so glad you're here! If you're just getting started, check out the "start here" tab above and make sure to join our community, keep informed, and get access to exclusive content by signing up for the enewsletter over to your right.

There once was a girl.

A girl who had to have the best and most up to date cookware she could find.

She found her way through the aisles of the nearest department store, clutching the registry scanner. Hoping that someone would buy her the set she desired.

She got them, two in fact.

Two sets of non-stick pots and pans. Beautiful and shiny on the bottom, with a slick and smooth surface on the inside.

Little did she know.

That those same pans had a life of about five or six years. They scratched and got dingy. And they were toxic.

Have you heard that you shouldn’t cook in non-stick pans?

If you haven’t, you shouldn’t. The coating on the non-stick pans is, well…., toxic. And not only do the toxins get into the food, they get into the air we breathe.

photo credit: mckaysavage

I couldn’t imagine why someone would want to use anything but non-stick pans, who would mess around with scrubbing them if you didn’t have to?

But then again, I also thought butter was bad for you – and vegetable oils and margarines don’t fair well on pots and pans, often time making them stickier. (Ever notice the gook on your pans? That’s from non-stick spray or margarine)

I also tried to use them just like non-stock pans, I didn’t know to heat it up first before I put the oil in.

Have you switched to stainless steel pots and pans yet?

Donielle is an author, amateur herbalist, lover of real food, and an advocate for natural health. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health, so much so that she is currently taking courses to become a master herbalist. Her personal background includes both infertility and miscarriage and she began this blog in order to share all of the information she found helpful in her journey to healing.

Many of the links on this site are affiliate links, which mean that the owner of the site may earn a small commission from your purchase through the company. We will not recommend a company that we do not purchase from ourselves and we thank you for your support. No contributor or author on this site is a medical doctor and the statements made here have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. These statements are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease. This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Read our privacy policy and full disclosure here.

@JessieLeigh, That particular pan is still non-stick on the cooking side – so it’s the same as all non-stick pans unfortunately. There are some ceramic cast iron pans that would be good though. So it really all just depends on what they inside is made of. The ceramic just seems to be what makes it pretty.

We made the switch to stainless steel back in December and got rid of our non-stick set. We haven’t had any issues with hard to clean pans other than when we fry eggs, but if we use enough coconut oil and clean the pans right away then it isn’t really a problem. I used a Teflon pan at my moms house recently and it gave me a major headache! Hmmm…

@Amy (One Day Closer), Oh how I wish I could have tossed all mine at once! Unfortunately it was during a time when we were building a house AND my husband’s hours were cut quite severely at work. Luckily that summer I was able to pretty much thrift all of my cast iron and was gifted my stainless steel.

Awe have several stainless steal the rest are all cast iron. We were the same way when we were married. The only thing we register for was non-stick. Needless to say they didn’t stick. Oquickly we found ourselves buy new pans.
Thanks for the post.

What do you use/how do you cook eggs? I find it nearly impossible to keep them from sticking w/o the nonstick pan. I will have to try Holly’s suggestion of lots of coconut oil, but would love to hear what you do too.

@Angela, I use my cast iron pans for cooking eggs. With a bit of butter or coconut oil (I prefer butter. Or bacon grease.) they don’t stick at all! Otherwise it takes a lot of oil or butter in a stainless steel pan – and make sure you heat the pan first, then put int he oil and eggs.

I recently switched, in fact I am selling my old pots and pans in a garage sale this weekend along with my microwave. I am slowly occurring stainless and cast iron. After getting use to using them, I love them. My husband and I have done without a microwave as well.